Prognostic value of sarcopenia on survival outcomes in patients undergoing surgical treatment for gastric cancer

Aim: This study aims to assess the predictive impact of sarcopenia on survival in individuals with surgically treated gastric cancer.Material and Methods: This retrospective analysis examined individuals who underwent surgery for gastric cancer, categorizing them into sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia groups based on skeletal muscle index from abdominal CT images. The study assessed clinicopathological variables, survival, and prognosis differences between the groups.Results: The median age of the 84 patients was 59 years (range, 24–80); 64.3% were male. For all patients, 67.9% (n = 57) had sarcopenia and 32.1% (n = 27) did not. According to the ROC analysis, the predictive performance of sarcopenia for mortality was statistically significant (AUC = 0.694; p = 0.012). The best cut-off value of 24.97 yielded 75.8% sensitivity and 61.1% specificity. The median follow-up was 48.6 months, and 18 patients (21.4%) died. Sarcopenia patients had a median survival of 32 months (95% CI: 27.4–36.6), while non-sarcopenic patients had 56 months (95% CI: 43.2–68.8). Sarcopenia was an independent survival predictive factor in multivariate Cox regression (HR = 2.46; 95% CI: 1.24–4.87; p = 0.010).Conclusion: The identification of sarcopenia through CT imaging at the time of diagnosis in patients with gastric cancer is associated with overall survival rates and serves as a prognostic marker for poor prognosis.